475. Hunting, 8

(Myls)

Blume and I hit the road. She’s carrying on her back Zes’s body wrapped up like a mummy.

She lies in between. Until I decide...

We’re heading East. I keep pestering Blume whether if she found what I’m looking for.

B - Nothing yet. It’s really hard.

M - Just find me one.

There are a few different roads ahead of me. But they will all lead to the destruction of a star out there in the sky.

Whatever that Magenta now wants to do...

I wanted to think that it would look elsewhere, feeling it had won its victory and revenge.

But unlike Rose, I won’t underestimate my enemy.

It’s still overlooking, and surely aware. It will try to stop me, one way or another.

I want to be ready to face it.

So first of all, I need weapons.

Rose’s flying ship has been destroyed in the orbital strike unfortunately.

So we walk... Blume being insanely strong, she carries most of our luggage.

We walk fast and quietly most of the time.

Just at times I can’t stop myself and I’m aggressive.

M - You should have known. And you should have seen it coming.

B - Hm... You’re right.

I preferred when she was laughing. I’m spiteful.

Her face has lost its cheerful lustre.

I know she’s spreading her filaments in the other side of reality, to find more about what we’re looking for.

She can sense a small glint of hope still in existence out there in space.

And with that, when will Magenta be above us in the sky.

That satellite is neither on a daily rhythm nor geostationary. It’s a slow asynchronous orbit. It will take a few days for us to see it in apogee again.

Meanwhile the rot where Nightmare touched me is growing along my arm. It’s not my main concern today, but it’s not painful at least.

Dry days pass as we head out of the dead zone.

~

B - Something is coming toward us.

M - I told you so.

An agent comes to deal the finishing blow to the enemies of its master.

It followed us. It tracked us down.

I’m extremely annoyed by a few things. The first one being I still am out of ammunitions for my handguns. The further East we go from Europe, the less we find.

I feel extremely uncomfortable facing a fight without my trustworthy guns.

Blume hands me the last rifle we have. Just a few bullets salvaged. We don’t even have a bow.

Blume however, after unloading her huge backpack, seems at ease holding Rose’s longsword.

M - You know how to use it?

B - I’ll be fine. Just stay alive.

We won’t be the best of comrades. But she’ll follow my lead ‘till we make it.

I welcome the Priest, running along a road toward us.

My bullet hits the head and the beast collapses, about fifty metres away.

M - He looks different...

B - He’s the little brother. Same kind of demon.

Of course. The kind of gorilla or whatever it’s supposed to look like, it stands up again. He has arms growing into wings onto his back, but they’re still immature. He runs on all four like a wolf or things like that.

I’ve only seen pictures of most animals of the past, but I know enough.

Blume raises her hand and makes a small shade appear. The opposite of a glow.

She holds it at the aperture of the barrel from my rifle.

B - Do it.

I shoot through it, straight at the Priest.

The bullet coated in shade hits the torso. Something caustic dissolves it, and he begins bleeding heavily from the wound. He collapses again a step further.

M - Wow...

Blume’s sorcery is frightening.

She never looked that dangerous to me... Blume is not smiling though. Coming from her, that must mean a lot.

She’s one of them after all...

Ah... I finally understand.

It took me this long.

But now I understand why she’s like that, and why she’s following me in this idea.

She’s feeling just like me.

The one she loves has been murdered before her eyes.

She’s not playing human anymore.

I see her step ahead, sword in hand.

Priest roars and resume his stupid attack.

It goes fast. It’s like the sword becomes a blurry cable or whip. I hear odd sounds and see body parts fly.

And it’s over. I’m stunned.

She reaches the head of the beast and pierces it like a skewer at her feet.

She grabs it and I can see that her fingers are diving inside the flesh.

The stain on my arm suddenly burns again.

The head of the Priest explodes in Blume’s hand.

She’s holding a fleshy brain.

And she’s looking oddly at it.

I look elsewhere. I hear her eating it. I don’t want to see that...

She’s wolfing down that brain.

My arm hurts.

~

Later that day, we reached a dead city and found a place where to camp.

M - You’ve changed.

B - Maybe. I’m a little... annoyed I guess.

M - At what?

B - I can see a hundred ways this tragedy could have been prevented. And yet here we are, feeling bad. Annoyed...

M - Magenta will pay.

B - That’s not the issue.

M - What is then?

Blume looks dark.

She tells me why.

Her and Nightmare were powerful. Rose as well. And we humans were smart.

Yet all of us, none of us saw anything coming.

It was a perfect surprise strike. And the perfect declaration of war.

And not just between humans and these so-called gods.

That one god, Magenta reborn, created that spell of destruction for that sole purpose.

It’s not just a violent beast like that Priest was. There’s more behind it than just instincts and obedience. There’s hate, and strategy. Magenta felt ready to face all of us.

B - As for I... I feel responsible and also very hateful. And that will affect me, for a long time now most likely...

~